Capital Punishment

Table of Contents

Introduction2

The law of capital punishment2

Cost of capital punishment3

Theory of deterrence4

The psychological impact of death row on correctional officers4

Some other reasons for supporting capital punishment5

Conclusion6

Works Cited7

Capital Punishment

Introduction

Capital punishment may be defined as the lawful infliction of death as punishment. Despite continued debate over merits and effectiveness of capital punishment as a means to deter serious crime, it is still adopted in the United States. By 2003 in America, 12 states have not adopted the capital punishment. These are Alaska, Iowa, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, Minnesota, West Virginia, Michigan, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Vermont and the District of Columbia. Thirty eight other states have employed capital punishment. To date, Texas has had the highest number of executions. In a small period of 11 years, 235 death row inmates were executed in the era of Governor Rick Perry.

If we look at the world wide statistics for capital punishment, we can see that two-third countries in the world have abandoned the death penalty. They either have labeled it unconstitutional, or they do not practice it. Between 1995 and 2010, the number of countries involved in judicial killing has fallen from 41 to 23.

The law of capital punishment

In the year 1972, the US government made one of the most historic decisions of its time with the majority of 5 to 4. It declared the death penalty law unconstitutional across US. However, five states introduced bills to resurrect the death penalty. They collected evidence of incidences where released murderers committed yet another crime of murder. Due to the strong support for the death penalty in California, in the year 1972, the matter was propelled to ballot. By 1976, the federal government enacted the capital punishment statutes anew. If we look at the public opinion on the matter of the death penalty, we can see a drastic shift in public opinion between 1972 and 1976.

Cost of capital punishment

The cost of capital punishment that is the cost of keeping an inmate on death row is very high and has to be borne by the government. The question arises whether this high cost of capital punishment justifies capital punishment? Should capital punishment be abolished or continued? Proponents of capital punishment have their reasons. For instance, a murderer in Florida confessed to 28 murders and was put on death row for nine years. During this time, he got three stays of execution. Before being electrocuted, it cost the taxpayers around us $5 million for his execution. Therefore, it is clear that a single execution costs the state too much of the money. The expense for keeping the state at a death row inmate is borne by the state where the inmate is kept.

The cost of keeping a culprit in death row is very high. Also, the time till his punishment decision has a very long process which is not only tedious but also costly. When considering the high cost of keeping inmates on death row, we should also consider the ...